Carpet strip installation apparatus

ABSTRACT

A tackless carpet strip is secured to a floor along a wall base plate by a plurality of spaced anchoring brackets which extend transversely of the carpet strip and each includes a flat anchoring member which is pointed at its inner end to be driven under the base plate. Each anchoring member has a pair of upstanding carpet strip flanges which project transversely of the anchoring member and are positioned to receive a carpet strip of predetermined width and hold it a predetermined distance away from the wall. Each anchoring bracket is driven into position under the wall base plate by means of a slotted hammering block which has a transverse slot extending upwardly from the bottom of the block and dimensioned to receive the outer carpet strip flange while a portion of the block contacts the top of the anchoring member between the carpet strip receiving flanges. The hammering block transmits the force of hammer blows on its outer end to the outer end of the anchoring member in such manner that the anchoring member is driven into position under the base plate without bending the outer carpet strip flange.

United States Patent ['19] Jirovetz 1 Apr. 23, 1974 1 CARPET STRIP INSTALLATION APPARATUS [76] inventor: Andre .l. Jirovetz, Box 246,

Sturgeon Bay, Wis. 54235 [22] Filed: Feb. 23, 1973 [21] App]. No.: 335,261

[52] US. Cl 145/46, 16/4, 29/275 5/1968 Omholt '145/46 Primary Examiner-18] Lawrence Smith Assistant Examiner-J. T. Zatarga I Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Arthur L. Morsell, Jr.

[57] ABSTRACT A tackless carpet strip is secured to a floor along a wall base plate by a plurality of spaced anchoring brackets which extend transversely of the carpet strip and each includes a flat anchoring member which is pointed atits inner end to be driven under the base plate. Each anchoring member has a pair of upstanding carpet strip flanges which project transversely of the anchoring member and are positioned to receive a carpet strip of predetermined width and hold it .a predetermined distance away from the walL'Each anchoring bracket is driven into position; under the wall base plate by means of a slotted hammering block which has a transverse slot extending upwardly from the bottom of the block and dimensioned to receive the outer carpet strip flange while a portion of the block contacts the top of the anchoring member between the carpet strip receiving flanges. The hammering block transmits the force of hammer blows on its outer end to the outer end of the anchoring member in such manner that the anchoring member is driven into position under the base plate without bending the outer carpet strip flange.

6 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures 1 CARPET STRIP INSTALLATION APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION When carpets are laid on floors such as concrete or tile, it is necessary to install carpet strips around the edges of the floor to provide a surface to which the margin of the carpet may be conveniently attached. The carpet strip may be a wooden strip which is thick enough to receive carpet tacks, and the edges of the carpet may be tacked to the carpet strip. Alternately, the carpet strip may be a tackless type which contains slanted carpet-engaging pins on its upper surface to engage the bottom of the carpet when the carpet is pressed down on top of the strip. In either case, the carpet strips may be supported by transverse anchoring brackets which are driven under the wall baseboard and base plate. The anchoring brackets are spaced around the margin of the room and each bracket contains upwardly projecting flanges which are positioned to receive the carpet strip and hold it a predetermined distance away from the wall. After the carpet has been attached to the carpet strips, the outermost edge of the carpet is tucked down out of sight in the space between the carpet strip and the wall.

One illustrative prior art carpet strip bracket is disclosed in U. S. Pat. No. 2,670,494, which was issued on Mar. 2, 1954 to C. E. Owens for Anchoring Means for Carpet Tacking Strips. As illustrated in FIG. 4 of the above-noted U. S. patent, this prior art carpet strip bracket has a pair of upstanding flanges l4. and 38 which are positioned to receive a carpet strip of predetermined width and hold it a predetermined distance away from a wall. The end 16 of the bracket is beveled to slide under thewall base plate and'pointed teeth 18 are provided to bite into the bottom of the base plate after the bracket is driven under the base plate. The movement of the bracket under the base plate is limited by an abutment flange 36 which is spaced from the inner carpet strip flange 38 to provide a predetermined space between the carpet strip and the wall.

The above-noted prior art carpet strip bracket is installed by laying the bracket on the floor with its bev-' eled edge 16 against the lower edge of the baseboard,

then driving the bracket under the baseboard by striking the outermost carpet strip flange 14 with a hammer. This hammering tends to bend the flange 14 inwardly so that it must thereafter be straightened by hammering against the flange 14 in the opposite direction. This is time-consuming and also tends to move the bracket out of its proper position. Also, the'flange 14 may, at times, I

be bent too badly to be straightened out, and in this case difficulty may be encountered in installing the carpet strip. Accordingly, one object of this invention is to provide an improved apparatus for installing carpet strip brackets whereby the brackets can be conveniently driven into positionunder a base plate without bending the outermost carpet strip flange, and whereby the driving of the large number of brackets usually required may be performed quickly.

Another difficulty encountered-in the installation of the prior art carpet strip brackets is that the upper edge of the carpet strip flanges have to be bent over the top of the carpet strip to hold it in place. This is done by hammering on the upper edge 1 of the carpet strip flanges after the carpet strip is placed between them. In addition to being time-consuming, this procedure also may damage the carpet strip or bend some of the carpet-engaging pins thereofso that they will not engage the carpet properly when it is laid on top of the strip. Accordingly, another object of this invention is to provide a carpet strip bracket in which the carpet strip is,

held in its proper position without requiring any hammering on the carpet strip flanges.

A further difficulty with the prior art carpet strip brackets is that the abutment flange and the inner carpet strip flange are punched out of the bracket body in such manner as to leave two laterally aligned openings which tend to weaken the bracket body. Accordingly, an additional object of this invention is to provide a carpet strip bracket having increased strength.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those-skilled in the art from the following description of one illustrative embodiment of the invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with this invention, the above-noted objects are attained by providing an improved carpet strip installation apparatus which avoids the abovenoted drawbacks and by including a hammering block which coacts with'the bracket in such a way that the carpet strip anchoring brackets may be quickly driven into position without bending their outer flanges.

In the preferred embodiment, the distance between the two carpet strip'flanges of the bracket is made slightly larger than the width of the carpet strip, and the upper end of the inner carpet strip flange is bent over so as to rest on the top of the carpet stripwhen it is slid between the two carpet strip flanges. This eliminates theneed to hammer down the top of the'carpet strip flanges. In the preferred embodiment, longitudinal stiffening ribs are formed along the sides of the bracket to strengthen it. The inner carpet strip flange and abutment flange are preferably punched out of longitudinally opposed portions of the bracket to avoid weakening it. The hammering block of this invention contains a transverse slot which extends upwardly from the bottom of the block and is dimensioned to receive the outer carpet strip flange of a carpet strip bracket. The distance between the slot and the inner end of the hammering block is smaller than the distance between the carpet strip flanges, whereby the hammering block may be placed in overlapping relationship with the bracket to hammer the same into position without bending its outer carpet strip flange. In the preferred embodiment of the hammering block, the bottom inner portion of the block infront of the slot is offset upwardly by an amount equal to the depth of the anchoring bracket so as to'fit snugly against the top of the anchoring bracket and floor adjacent to the anchoring bracket.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one illustrative carpet strip anchoring bracket and a hammering block about to be assembled in operative relationship;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the hammering block of FIG.

- a carpet laid over the carpet strip and engaged by the carpet-engaging pins of the strip.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. I is a perspective view of the improved installation apparatus of this invention. The carpet strip anchoring bracket includes a flat anchoring plate or member 11 which is relatively long and slender in configuration and forms the body of the bracket. Anchoring member 11 is pointed on its inner end 12 so as to be easily driven under a wall base plate, and pointed teeth 14 project at an angle from the anchoring plate 11 near its inner end to bite into the bottom of the base plate and hold the bracket 10 in position after it has been driven under a base plate 15 as shown in FIG. 2. An upstanding abutment flange 16 is provided to limit the inward motion of the anchoring member 11 under the wall panel or baseboard 17 as shown in FIG. 2. A pair of upstanding carpet strip flanges l8 and also project from anchoring member 11 at spaced-apart locations which are spaced from the abutment flange 16 by a predetermined distance; 'Carpet strip flanges 18 and 20 are shaped and positioned to receive a carpet strip 22 as shown in FIG. 4, such as a tackless carpet strip, and to hold it a predetermined distance away from the wall 17 to allow space for the marginal edge of the carpet'to be tucked in.

Referring toFIG. 4, the outer carpet strip flange 20 is contiguous with the outer end of anchoring plate 10 and is of the same height as the carpet strip 22. The inner carpet strip flange 18, however, extends above the carpet strip 22 and is bent over on its upper edge to form a lip 26 that rests upon the top of the carpet strip 22 when it is inserted between the two flanges 18 and 20. The distance A between the adjacent edges of the flanges 18 and 20 is slightly greater than the width B of carpet strip 22 by a predetermined difference C which, in this embodiment of the invention, is equal to one-sixteenth of an inch. The difference C allows the carpet strip 22 to be inserted between the two carpet strip flanges 18 and 20 by being inserted under the top edge or lip 26 of the flange 18 as shown by the dashed lines in FIG. 4 and then by being rotated forwardly and downwardly into the position shownjby the solid lines. This allows the carpet strip 22 to be inserted quickly and easily and eliminates the need for hammering down the top of the carpet strip flanges after the carpet strip isinplace. 1

The distance D between the adjacent sides of abutment flange l6 and carpet striprflange 18 is selected to provide a predetermined separation between the carpet strip 22 and wall 17 in order to provide room for the edge of the carpet to be tucked down out of sight as shownin FIG. 5. The amount of space required for this purpose is well known to those skilled in the art and will not be further specified herein.

It should be noted that the improved carpet strip bracket of this invention can be used with plain carpet strips or with tackless carpet strips. FIGS. 4 and 5 show the tackless type of carpet strip in which the carpet strip 22 has carpet-engaging pins 23 that project from the top of strip 22 at an angle of approximately 45 and bite into the bottom of the carpet when it is pressed down on top of the strip as shown in FIG. 5. The carpet is stretched to its fullest extent when its margin is engaged by the pins 23 so that a small force is developed which tends to press the carpet strip 22 backwardly against the outer carpet strip flange 20. This small force holds the carpet strip 22 in contact with the outer carpet strip flange 20 but is not strong enough to move the anchoring plate 11 away from wall panel 17.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the flanges l6 and 18 are preferably punched out of the flat body of anchoring member 11 and are preferably positioned in longitudinally opposed relationship so that the openings 19 and 21 will be longitudinally aligned with each other, thereby to minimize the weakening effect on the body of anchoring member 11. In the prior art, the openings corresponding to the openings 19 and 21 were arranged in side-by-side relationship which tended to weaken .the body of the bracket and also limit the length of the flanges. In accordance with this invention, however, the openings 19 and 21 are arranged in longitudinal opposition to each other and longitudinal strengthening ribs 25 are also provided to increase the strength of the bracket and for special coaction with the hammering block.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, one illustrative embodiment of the hammering block of this invention comprises a rectangular parallelepiped 28 which has a transverse slot 30 extending upward from its bottom side. The hammering block 28 is made of a material such as iron or steel which is rigid enough to withstand repeated pounding by a hammer. The transverse slot 30 is dimensioned to receive the rear carpet flange 20 and is positioned as shown in FIG. 2 so that the portion E of hammering block 28 forward of the slot 30 is shorter than the distance between the twocarpet strip flanges 18 and 20. This allows the forward portion E of the hammering block 28 to slide down and contact the upper surface of the anchoring plate 11 between the flanges l8 and 20 when the flange 20 is engaged in slot 30 as shown in FIG. 2. The lower surface of the forward portion E of hammering block 28 is preferably offset upwardly as indicated at G in FIG. 1 by a depth which is equal to the depth of the rearportion of anchoring plate 11. With the offset G, the rear portion F of the hammering block 28 may contact the floor while at the same time the forward portion E contacts the upper surface of the anchoring member 11 in the space between flanges l8 and 20. When the longitudinal stiffening ribs 25 are used inthe bracket, the forward portion E of hammeringblock 28 contacts the upper surfaces of the two ribs 25 in the space between flanges l8 and 20.

The hammering block '28 of this invention may be used to install the improved carpet strip brackets of this invention or to install any of the prior art'carpet strip brackets which have an upstanding outer flange similar to the flange 20. In order to install a carpet strip bracket with the hammering block of this invention, the bracket 10 is placed on the floor with its inner end 12 against the bottom of the wall panel or baseboard 17. The hammering block 28 is then placed with the slot 30 over the outer carpet strip flange 20 and is dropped into position as shown in FIG. 2 so that the bottom surface of the hammering block 28 contacts the floor behind the anchoring bracket 10 and the top surface of the anchoring bracket between the flanges l8 and 20. The anchoring bracket is then driven into position under base plate 25 by hammering on the outer end of the hammering block 28 until the abutment flange 16 abuts against the wall panel or baseboard 17. The hamstrip flanges l8-and 20 of the brackets as describedpreviously in connection with FIG. 4. The carpet liner is then laid in the room inside the margin of the carpet strip, and the carpet is laid on top of the liner and over the tackless strip as shown in FIG. 5, where the carpet liner is indicated by the reference numeral 32 and the carpet is indicated by the reference numeral 34. It will be noted that the tackless strip 22 is approximately equal in height to the height of the carpet liner 32 so that the carpet 34 fits smoothly over the top of the carpet strip 22. As a final step the extreme inner edge 35 of the carpeting is suitably driven down into the space between the flanges 16 and 18 of each bracket as shown in FIG. 5, and also between the strip 22 and the wall panel. Although this invention has been described in con-. nection with two illustrative embodiments thereof, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments since modifications can be made in the disclosed structure without departing from the basic principles of this invention. For example, although the disclosed hammering block is a rectangular parallelepiped, other shapes are'possible, e.g., the upper corner surfaces of the block may be rounded if desired to more smoothly fit the hand of the user. This and other modifications of the disclosed structure will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and this invention includes all such modifications as fall within the scope of the following claims.

What I claim is:

1. Installation apparatus for a carpet strip comprising anchoring means for holding the carpet strip adjacent to a wall, said anchoring means including a flat elongated anchoring bracket which is adapted atone end to 6 be driven under said wall, a pair of upstanding flanges extending transversely of said bracket and spaced apart longitudinally of the bracket to receive a transversely extending carpet strip of predetermined width, one of said flanges being on the outer end of said flat bracket, and a hammering block having a transverse slot extending upwardly from its under side and dimensioned to receive said last-mentioned flange and positioned so that a portion of the block overlaps and contacts said bracket in the space between said flanges, said hammering block having an outer end that projects outwardly from said bracket, and said block being made of a material which is sufficiently rigid to transmit the.

force of hammer blows delivered "to said outer end of said block to the end of said flat bracket from which saidlast-mentioned flange projects.

2. Installation apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said hammering block is a rectangular parallelepiped and wherein said slot extends transversely of two of the longer sides of said block.

3. Installation apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the portion of said hammering block forward of said slot isshorter than the distance between said carpet strip flanges whereby the forward portion of said hammering block may be lowered into the space between said carpet strip flanges when said outer carpet strip flange is inserted in said slot.

4. Installation apparatus as defined in claim 1 whereinthe bottom portion of said hammering block forward of said slot is offset upwardly by an amount equal to the thickness of said flat anchoring bracket.

5. Installation apparatus as defined in claim ,1 in which the bracket has oppositely disposed, longitudinally extending ribs projecting upwardly from its upper surface in a position to be engaged by the portion of the hammering block which overlaps the bracket.

6. Installation apparatus as claimed in claim 4 in which the bracket has oppositely disposed, longitudinally extending ribs projecting upwardly from its upper surface in a position to be engaged by the portion of the hammering block which overlaps the bracket, and in which the bottom portion of the hammering block is offset upwardly by an amount equal to the thickness of the bracket plusthe extra thickness provided by the ribs. 

1. Installation apparatus for a carpet strip comprising anchoring means for holding the carpet strip adjacent to a wall, said anchoring means including a flat elongated anchoring bracket which is adapted at one end to be driven under said wall, a pair of upstanding flanges extending transversely of said bracket and spaced apart longitudinally of the bracket to receive a transversely extending carpet strip of predetermined width, one of said flanges being on the outer end of said flat bracket, and a hammering block having a transverse slot extending upwardly from its under side and dimensioned to receive said lastmentioned flange and positioned so that a portion of the block overlaps and contacts said bracket in the space between said flanges, said hammering block having an outer end that projects outwardly from said bracket, and said block being made of a material which is sufficiently rigid to transmit the force of hammer blows delivered to said outer end of said block to the end of said flat bracket from which said last-mentioned flange projects.
 2. Installation apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said hammering block is a rectangular parallelepiped and wherein said slot extends transversely of two of the longer sides of said block.
 3. Installation apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the portion of said hammering block forward of said slot is shorter than the distance between said carpet strip flanges whereby the forward portion of said hammering block may be lowered into the space between said carpet strip flanges when said outer carpet strip flange is inserted in said slot.
 4. Installation apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the bottom portion of said hammering block forward of said slot is offset upwardly by an amount equal to the thickness of said flat anchoring bracket.
 5. Installation apparatus as defined in claim 1 in which the bracket has oppositely disposed, longitudinally extending ribs projecting upwardly from its upper surface in a position to be engaged by the portion of the hammering block which overlaps the bracket.
 6. Installation apparatus as claimed in claim 4 in which the bracket has oppositely disposed, longitudinally extending ribs projecting upwardly from its upper surface in a position to be engaged by the portion of the hammering block which overlaps the bracket, and in which the bottom portion of the hammering block is offset upwardly by an amount equal to the thickness of the bracket plus the extra thickness provided by the ribs. 